Third (3rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) on Long Term Evolution (LTE) release 9 defines a unidirectional broadcast delivery service. The focus of the standard is to allow a fixed or a wired content source provider to deliver a data stream or content on a unidirectional broadcast service (MBMS broadcast) to a particular coverage area for consumption by user equipment (UE). This allows, for example, the delivery of broadcast video sessions such as sports, news, or weather alerts in a particular area. However, one of the problems with the MBMS on LTE is that the operation is limited since it does not consider the case of a mobile content source i.e., when the content source for the MBMS broadcast service is the mobile user equipment. The content source could be, for example, a police radio that is keyed for Push to talk (PTT) service.
Further, in a group communication, there is a need for members of a group to be able to communicate regardless of location of the members of the group. In land mobile radio (LMR) conventional systems, a user's ability to communicate with other users (on the same RF channel) is based on the channel's coverage area. However, in case the user moves out of the channel's coverage area, the user fails to communicate with the other users in the group. In other words, the users that move outside the channel's coverage area can neither receive downlink broadcast data nor source data uplink for downlink broadcast on that channel.
In order to provide similar LMR conventional operation on a broadband network, MBMS on LTE can be used. Content sourced from a UE, for example a police radio that is keyed for Push to talk (PTT) service, is delivered uplink using point-to-point unicast and then distributed downlink using MBMS broadcast that is constrained to a specific coverage area within a portion of the overall broadband network's system coverage. However there are scenarios in which users desire to participate in a group service while outside the specific coverage area for the group service.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for extending a broadcast group service to a user equipment.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.